


Surprise

by halfeatenmoon



Category: Love Actually (2003)
Genre: Banoffee Pie, Christmas, F/M, M/M, Surprises, Threesome, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 08:26:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/607814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfeatenmoon/pseuds/halfeatenmoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mark doesn't expect Juliet or Peter to ever love him the way he loves them. That doesn't mean he has to stop with the surprises.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Surprise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sinope](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinope/gifts).



Juliet's birthday was in March, and she got a card from Mark in the mail. Nothing special, a corner shop card with a short, generic message scribbled under the one that came pre-printed on the inside. 'Happy birthday, and give my love to Peter. Mark.' But it did arrive on exactly the right morning.

"He's trying," Peter said, reading over her shoulder. Juliet thinks he doesn't know how right he is.

She didn't throw a big party, just a small group of close friends over for drinks. She hesitated at inviting Mark, still not sure where they stood. Peter thought it was a good idea, though. Juliet knows how pleased he is that she and Mark have become friends. He doesn't need to know how it happened.

"And maybe he'll hit it off with one of your friends," Peter added. "He's a good bloke. I don't know why he's been alone for so long."

Mark showed up with a cheap bottle of wine and greeted her with a smile and hug, something that still threw Juliet off guard. She knew why he was different now, of course, but she was still so used to the Mark who was cold and aloof, who started looking for an exit as soon as he said hello, that it was still a surprise when he acted so genuinely happy to see her. He was all warmth tonight, though, even with the single women that Peter made a point of introducing to him. Yet Mark didn't seem interested in getting to know any of them better, and soon enough he was saying his goodbyes.

"Sorry I couldn't stay for cake," he sais, standing in the doorway, half out in the cold already.

"Oh, don't." Juliet waved him away. "It's not worth it, really, just a cheap tasteless thing I picked up at the supermarket."

"Even so. Happy birthday, make a wish and all that. I hope it comes true."

It should be awkward, the two of them standing their on either side of the door just the way they did a few months ago, but it wasn't. They just said goodbye and Juliet closed the door instead of watching him walk down the street, and they went on with their lives again.

Except when Juliet went to the fridge to get out the cake and found a huge banoffee pie sitting underneath it. Everyone left at the party swore they didn't buy it, and as if to prove it, none of them wanted a slice. Nobody else shared her terrible taste in pie and Juliet got the whole thing to herself.

 

Peter arrived home from work on his birthday in a cacophany of helicoptor rotors, ran inside and almost threw Juliet in the air in his excitement.

"You'll never guess how I came home from work!" he shouted, once she'd convinced him to put her down.

"I think I can, actually," she said, wincing. She'd heard the helicopter coming from quite a way away. She just never would have thought it would be Peter. "How on earth did you get a ride home in a chopper?"

Peter grinned and hugged her again. "I was packing up to leave when my boss gave me a message to go next door and head up to the roof. Here's me thinking bloody hell, working extra time on my birthday, and then there's a pilot there giving me some earmuffs and telling me to jump in."

"What a surprise!" Juliet said, still just a little taken aback.

"I used to want to be a pilot, you know."

"I never knew that." Juliet slipped out of his arms at last and went to the kitchen to get the champagne. "So who organised this big treat for you?"

"Isn't it obvious? Mark, of course," 

Juliet was struggling with the bottle, but at that she gave up and set it down. "Oh! Did you see him?"

"I don't have to. I just know him. Nobody else does surprises like Mark does," Peter said, and picked up the champagne bottle to pop the cork.

 

(Mark's birthday wass a quiet affair. He invited them both over for dinner, just them. He cooked and they brought the cake, and they all toasted quietly to his good health. Peter asked whether he'd found a girlfriend yet, but didn't ask why not. Then they all cleaned up the kitchen together and watched _Amelie_ while Juliet and Mark nudged Peter to stop him from falling asleep. When midnight came and Peter and Juliet had to leave, Mark hugged them both and said it was the best birthday he'd ever had. As they walked away, Peter said, softly, "I wish I could do more.")

 

It took Juliet a while to realise what was happening on their anniversary. It wasn't just one song, that was the thing. Just that everywhere she went that day, there seemed to be music, and she loved all of it. It just gave the day an extra magical sheen, walking around thinking _I've been married for a year!_ and hearing music she loved the whole time. It wasn't until she went down the road from work to get a coffee and the buskers started playing the song they danced to at the wedding that she realised _every_ song she'd heard today was one they played at the wedding.

She called him from the coffee shop as she watched the brass band on the corner playing her song. "Mark."

"Yes?" he said, innocently. "Happy anniversary, by the way."

"Oh. Yes, I got your... um... thanks." She took a moment to gather her composure. "Mark, I thought you were going to stop."

"Stop what?"

"The songs. The gifts. The... surprises. I thought you were moving on."

"I am," he said, warily. "It's not like I'm... I don't know... I don't want anything from you, Juliet. I'm not asking for anything, and I'm not expecting anything."

"But it makes me feel like you do."

"I'm sorry." He sounded genuinely chastened. "I didn't realise. I'm trying to be normal."

Juliet stared out at the band, who smiled back at her. "This is your normal?"

"I'm crap at gifts and I'm not much better at talking, so I give people surprises, instead." He paused. "It's not just your wedding anniversary today, you know. It's my best friend's, too."

 

Juliet and Peter didn't go anywhere fancy for their anniversary dinner. Just the pub down the road where they met for a plain old counter meal. It was a rowdy night for a Thursday, but they managed to squish into a table near the small stage without spilling their pints.

"Is there usually a band here on Thursdays?" Juliet yelled, over the noise.

"No, but I think I know why," Peter grinned. And sure enough, before they'd finished their meals, the band was playing 'All You Need Is Love'.

"Mark, right?"

"It's got his name all over it," Peter agreed. "Did you hear songs from our wedding all day, too?"

Juliet sat back and looked at him. "I thought it was a bit odd. And it made me feel kind of weird. Why does he do that?"

"I guess it's a bit of a shock if you're not used to Mark," he chuckled. "I'm so glad he finally warmed up to you, but you're in for a ride. This is just what Mark does for people he loves."

"Right." Juliet stared at her plate as the band sang _Nothing you can know that isn't known._ "People he loves."

 

When the Christmas songs started playing on the radio and Peter wondered whether they could find Mark a girlfriend in time for Christmas, Juliet took a deep breath and said "I think we can do better than that."

 

Mark came home late from dinner with his parents on Christmas Eve. When he saw the lights on in his flat he thought for a terrifying moment that it had been broken into, until he realised that burglars probably wouldn't have hung a brand new Christmas wreath on his door. So he went inside with only a minor sense of trepidation to find the walls festooned with bells and streamers, 'Silent Night' on the stereo, and his two best friends standing between the kitchen table and his bed, just smiling. He walked through the room feeling like he was in a trance, just taking it in.

"What is this?" he asked, at last, standing by the table with one hand resting on a chair as if to anchor him.

They looked at each other. "It's Christmas," Peter said, awkwardly.

"You do so much for us. We wanted to do something for you," Juliet added, and looked around. "I know it's not as smooth as some of the surprises you've given us, but we mean it. And.... oh look, just come here, will you?"

Mark stepped around the table, towards both their outstretched hands, but then he felt something fall on his head.

"Oh, fuck," Peter stepped forward, right in front of him, and picked something out of his hair. "I knew I'd do this all wrong, I should have... I don't know, nailed it up there or something."

Mark was just staring at Peter's hand, holding a sprig of mistletoe with three berries on it. "Thank you for not nailing anything to my ceiling," he said, faintly. Peter was still _right there_ , and now Juliet's hand was on his waist, and he didn't know what all this meant. "I'm sorry, I just don't... I don't know... what are you trying to..."

"Oh, shush," said Juliet. Mark just caught her giving a quick squeeze to Peter's hand and then she was kissing him. Just like he remembered, exactly a year ago, an anniversary kiss, in a way. But longer and sweeter and somehow more. Then Juliet broke it off, pulling away, and Mark barely had time to miss her because she was pushing him towards Peter.

"Hey," Peter said, looking down at him. His hand felt heavy on Mark's shoulder, but a good kind of heavy, the mistletoe still clamped between two of his fingers.

"Hey," Mark said, in reply, and licked his lips, trying to think of what to say. He didn't have to, though, because Juliet gave him a shove and then Peter's lips were on him, too, and Juliet's hands were on his back, and this was his best friend and it should have been strange but after all the years Mark had spent trying to make Peter's life brighter in any way he could, it just felt like it was time.

Peter and Juliet ganged up on him after a while and pushed him down onto the bed, where he lay on his back, breathless, as they both kneeled over him.

"I love you," he said, and he wasn't sure who to. To both of them, really. Just like he always had, only for once he was saying it out loud.

"We know," said Juliet, and Peter echoed her with "We always have."

Between clothes and skin and touch, there were plenty of other things to worry about before they got around to saying "We love you too," but by then Mark had gotten the idea. And that was how finally, one Christmas morning, he woke up in his own bed between the two people he loved the most, and knew at last that they actually did love him back.

**Author's Note:**

> You think you're done writing Yuletide stories for the year, and then you sit down to watch Love Actually with your sister on Christmas Eve and you get to the wedding scene and she says "I wish I had a friend like Mark who made awesome surprises for you all the time." And then you get hit in the head with an idea for that Mark/Juliet/Peter prompt you saw.
> 
> Anyway, hoped you like it. Coming up with surprises was fun, though a bit tricky for Peter. I'd never realised hwo little detail his character has in the movie. He doesn't even have a favourite kind of pie.


End file.
